If you’ve visited the Art and Textiles department over the last few weeks, you may have noticed a dark grey fabric sprawled, hung and draped along the corridor to create inner and outer space. It turns out, alumna and artist-in-residence, Harriet (Harry) Lusty (2015), is developing an installation piece, which she will be exhibiting at the New Contemporaries Exhibition at The Royal Scottish Academy of Art (RSA) in Edinburgh in February. 

We spoke to Harry about the piece, she said: “The plan is to create a large rectangle out of a light interfacing either in grey or black. However, I am still trialling to work out the best size and ratio of material. Then it will be hung in reaction to the space. So depending on the height of the ceilings or access, I would like to hang it in a more cascading narrow form. The piece lying flat as a rectangle will measure approximately 10m x 8m. The piece will be hung so people can walk it and underneath it creating a new interior and exterior space.”

Miss Nelson (Textiles teacher), adds: “Having Harry working on her piece in the gallery is hugely motivational to all the art and textile students - especially the exam groups, as they are able to experience what it means to be a working artist; gaining an insight into the reality of working in a creative industry. Watching Harry work, students are able to understand why people create art, how artists visualise their ideas and then turn it into a piece of artwork. This is the essence of visual art: translating an abstract idea into a tangible form.

“Once finished, Harry will work with the students in workshops and lessons to explore their own ideas for an artwork, helping them to translate these ideas into visual imagery in order to create it in tangible - material - forms.”